


One Day

by oldmythologies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Drabble Collection, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Self-Indulgent, Sheith Positivity Week 2017, Sheith Summer Week 2017, Soft Boys, They married, and a pool, and have a house in the suburbs, fluffy fluffy soft boys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-09-04
Packaged: 2018-12-07 19:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11630019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldmythologies/pseuds/oldmythologies
Summary: A series of drabbles written for Sheith Summer Week 2017.All future fics that are absurdly fluffy and soft and sweet.UPDATE: Apparently I like soft drabbles that pretend Nothing Bad Ever Happened Ever, so I'm leaving this open for more as I write them





	1. Summer Rain / Thunderstorm

**Author's Note:**

> Sky / Sea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer Rain / Thunderstorm

Shiro’s finger’s tapped against the armrest of his chair in a rhythm just inconsistent enough to be annoying.

_Tap. Tap tap. Tap._

He chewed on the edge of his reading glasses that he kept insisting he didn’t need, too absorbed in his book to notice what he was doing. He had to squint to make out the letters, completely ignoring the fact that he had glasses literally in his mouth. He had always been stubborn like that.

The rain pattering on the ceiling and windows only accented Shiro’s movements.

_Tap tap. Tap._

Keith burrowed further down into his side of the couch, trying to get comfortable despite the constant noise. Shiro sneezed and Keith looked up to catch just the end of him shaking his head like a cat before returning to his book.

Shiro was probably reading something exciting. He was basically a child in his book tastes, preferring young adult adventure novels where the twelve year old protagonist has to go fight monsters, ridiculous things like that. Keith was being the adult in their relationship and reading some president’s biography he had picked up at a library. He kind of wished the president would go take on some monsters.

Just as soon as the tapping had stopped for Shiro’s cat sneeze, it started back up, faster this time.

_Tap tap. Tap. Tap tap._

Keith grit his teeth and reread the same passage for the eighth time in a row.

The rain kept falling and Shiro kept tapping away.

He read the paragraph for the ninth time.

_Tap tap tap. Tap. Tap tap._

Throwing his book down on the couch, he crawled the few feet between them, reached over Shiro, and covered the noisy hand with his own. Shiro made a soft noise of surprise. When Keith turned to look at him, he was already grinning at the pout he knew he would find.

“You’re very noisy,” he said.

Shiro stuck out his bottom lip, but Keith could see the smile in his eyes. “I was just getting to the good part.”

He put the book down next to them on the couch and took the glasses out of his mouth, throwing them somewhere far away.

Keith turned over in Shiro’s lap, resting his head on Shiro’s offending arm.

He glared up at Shiro. “You’re always at the good part when you read kid’s books.”

Shiro grinned and Keith was caught, as always, by how his nose wrinkled when he smiled. “Says the person who was so bored by his adult books that he came to bother me.”

“I came over here to stop your incessant tapping.”

Shiro looked out the window. “I think you’re confusing me for the rain, boo.”

Keith rolled his eyes at the dumb pet name. Shiro didn’t use them most of the time, but when he did it was always to push Keith’s buttons. He refused to fall to that particular challenge.

“Must have been, baby doll,” he responded.

Shiro’s chest rumbled in laughter and Keith smiled, turning in Shiro’s lap to watch the rain fall. Shiro’s hand that wasn’t serving as a pillow came up to card through Keith’s hair. It was shorter, now, than it had been back in the days of Voltron. Shiro loved the feeling of the short hairs at the nape of Keith’s neck against his fingertips. Shiro’s hair was different now too, less of a wild undercut and more combed to the side, letting the white hair at the front fold in with the black.

They sat without talking, letting the soft sounds of the rain fill the silence.

Keith was the first to speak.

“I never thought we’d make it back, at least not like this.”

The suburban street in front of them was full of puddles and Keith knew the neighboring would pour out of their houses any minute to go jump in them.

Shiro hummed, his hand still moving in Keith’s hair. “I never thought I’d make it back at all.”

His hand stilled on Keith’s shoulder. He squeezed and got the cue to look up.

Shiro was staring down at him, chewing on the inside of his mouth. His eyes spoke volumes of hurt and memory and sorry and love and Keith sat up, turning on his knees and catching Shiro’s hand in his own. He waited for Shiro to speak, the rain providing the white noise that kept this from being awkwardly, heavily silent.

“Thank you for staying with me, I know I’m hard.”

Keith’s hands came up to cup Shiro’s face, making him catch Keith’s eyes.

Keith smiled.

“You’re absolutely perfect, baby doll.”

Shiro looked back down and huffed out a laugh against his will. Keith nudged Shiro’s chin up, once again forcing their eyes to lock. He leaned forward, unblinking, and rested his forehead against Shiro’s.

The chaste kiss the Keith placed on Shiro’s mouth was a familiar sensation, but Shiro still melted at every one, despite how often it happened.

“Hey, Shiro?”

Shiro closed his eyes and hummed again.

“Thanks for not disappearing _again_.”

Shiro laughed, and this time the smile wrinkled the edges of his eyes.

“I try my best.”

Keith pulled him into a tight hug that was immediately returned.

“Neither of us are going anywhere, okay?”

Shiro nodded, his chin knocking against Keith’s shoulder.

“We’re not going anywhere.”

They eventually settled back, comfortable in each other’s arms, Keith capturing the tapping right hand in his own, and watched the rain trickle down the windowsills as the street filled with the sound of laughter. They would stay there for a long time, and when the night fell and rain stopped, they’d still be safe in each other’s arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell with me about Sheith on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


	2. Sun / Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sun / Stars

Shiro absolutely loved dragging Keith out to the desert, laying out a blanket, and just staring up. Keith was no stranger to the desert, but coming here for no reason? He’d roll his eyes every time, but the smile on Shiro’s face when the stars started to fade into the sky was worth it all.

Shiro knew that Keith had studied at the garrison for a time and that he knew all the constellations just as well as Shiro did, but that wouldn’t stop him from pulling Keith in close to point out his favorites.

 _Of course I have favorite constellations,_ he’d say. _You don’t?_

Keith liked space, sure. He would have joined the garrison either way, because when an opportunity like that popped up, he didn’t have the luxury of saying no. Shiro, on the other hand, _loved_ it. Keith would have thought that with the way the stars and everything that came with them changed and hurt him, he’d hold some sort of bitterness.

Keith had brought it up once, on one of their trips. Shiro had just looked up, letting the light from the heavens fill his eyes.

 _The stars never hurt me, Keith. Only people did._ He’d smiled, turned to Keith, and the pain washed away. _But people are also everything I love, so I can’t hate them either._

Keith had kissed him, then, pulled him into his arms making some joke about how he definitely had the power to hate people. Shiro had laughed and called him a _big lying softy_.

Keith couldn’t disagree.

Shiro always fell asleep first on those nights, a rarity in their relationship. He was always the last one to sleep and first to wake up. After the first few years, Keith stopped trying to read into it. Nightmares haunted both of them, and Shiro’s method of coping just happened to be different than his.

For some reason, though, right under the stars, Shiro would curl up under Keith’s arm and drift off. Some part of Keith was worried that they’d be attacked by snakes or something, exposed to the elements and open to everything the desert had to offer, but he indulged Shiro anyway.

With Shiro sleeping peacefully, Keith got to look up and experience the desert sky in a way he hadn’t when he lived there. Back then, he had nothing in but a drive, a mystery that needed to be solved, a chunk of himself that had been ripped from his chest that he needed to find and put back in place. Now, that piece was right there with him and it let the stars shine so much brighter.

They filled his vision. He knew how vast space was; he knew that more intimately than anyone on Earth, probably. Somehow,staring up from their own little rock drove that home the most.

Shiro would wake up to the first hints of sun over the mountains to the East, and pop directly from lying flat to sitting upright, no grogginess in-between.

 _Sunrise!_ He’d yell, grinning like a child.

Keith woke slower, color already filling the horizon by the time he could pull himself up to lean against Shiro’s back. He always breathed deeper on mornings like that, like he was storing the early morning air in his lungs. The second the sun peeked over the mountains, chasing away the night, Shiro would release it, and breathe in anew. He insisted that they watch the sun rise in silence and Keith indulged him; he always did.

Packing the car back up in the morning, Shiro’s shoulders had lost the tension they held packing it up at home. The warmth of the early morning sun was finally reaching Keith in the soft chill left over from night.

Shiro would smile at him as they piled into the car.

 _There’s a meteor shower next month,_ he would say, and Keith would smile.

They’d get breakfast in the small town in the middle of the desert, right off the national park, where the waitress knew them. Shiro would get a massive pile of pancakes with chocolate chips, cover it in syrup, and Keith would get a sensible omelet.

Shiro would sing on the drive home, whatever catchy tune came on the radio. Sometimes an old classic would pop up and Shiro’s hands would tighten on the wheel if he’d forgotten the words. He felt like he must have known them, at some point, but they were gone now. Keith would fill those moments with his own singing, just slightly off key and untrained, until Shiro smiled once more.

They’d come back the next month, and the month after that, and after that, and after that, until the warmth of the sun wasn’t enough to warm their old bones in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell with me about Sheith on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


	3. Fireworks / Popsicle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fireworks / Popsicle

Shiro was smiling as he unpacked the groceries.

“Keith,” he yelled, “I got us a present!”

He put said present in the freezer and continued to organize their kitchen as he waited for Keith to plod down the stairs in his sleep clothes and wipe his eyes with a yawn.

“It’s almost ten, Keith! Day’s almost over!”

Keith groaned at sat down at the polished counter. Shiro loved their stupidly shiny granite countertops. “It’s only ten, Shiro, and you have no doubt gone for a run _and_ done all the grocery shopping. I think you need to go back to sleep.”

“Keith, I got popsicles.”

Keith raised a brow at him. “I’m proud of you.”

“Keith, it’s the middle of July and we have _popsicles_.”

Keith just looked at him. “These are all facts.”

“Keith, we have a pool!”

“We do.”

“Keith, come sit by the pool and eat colorful popsicles with me in the summer.” He rounded the counter and spun Keith around to face him. Keith was weak to that pout.

“Of course I will, Shiro, but I don’t get why you’re so excited. It’s just frozen juice.”

Shiro mock gasped and Keith smiled at him. This side of Shiro had been missing for so long after his imprisonment, and every time it showed up again Keith couldn’t hide his joy. He was glad Shiro could still find it in himself to be a playful piece of shit.

“Keith, popsicles are _not_ just frozen juice. I got the Jolly Rancher ones!”

Keith shrugged. “Never had ‘em.”

“You’ve never had Jolly Rancher popsicles? Oh babe, you’re missing out. You’re not allowed to try them until we go to the pool and want to die because of the heat, though. It’s the law.”

Keith laughed. “Whatever you say.”

They got a little bit distracted changing into their swimsuits, as they were wont to do these days, but eventually ended up with their feet in the quiet little pool in their backyard. They were both content to lean back on their towels, sunglasses on and eyes closed, as they let the sun permeate their skin.

Keith loved dumb little moments like this and he knew Shiro knew how much they were appreciated. Before they defeated the Empire, before he found Shiro in the desert, dumb little moments like this were a distant dream. There was no chance in hell that he’d be able to live in his own suburban house with a beautiful husband who was just starting to be confident enough to let the sun warm his scars. He didn’t expect to gain a family.

He shifted, his skin growing uncomfortably warm.

Shiro peeked at him from under his sunglasses.

“Is it time?!” he fake whispered, excitedly.

Keith laughed. “Go get your popsicles.”

Shiro, the grown ass man, sprinted off with a grin and a splash. He returned with the whole box of popsicles and placed it definitively between them. He ripped open the box and kneeled in front of Keith, pulling the white wrapper down off of the popsicle.

“Keith, will you—“

“We’re already married.”

Shiro pouted. “You’re no fun.”

Keith grabbed the popsicle from his hand with a smile. “I’m the most fun.”

He popped it into his mouth, ready to make some suggestive joke, but then he tasted it. His moan was more suggestive than any joke he could have made. The popsicle was cold on his lips and as the sweet liquid slid down his throat, he felt his entire body cool.

He opened his eyes to Shiro’s grin, both of their lips wrapped around their popsicles. Shiro pulled his away to reveal a purple stained mouth.

“It’s good, right?”

Keith nodded. “I can’t believe I’ve never had a popsicle.”

Shiro gaped at him. “You’ve never?”

Keith shook his head and shrugged. “Never came up.” He popped the popsicle back into his mouth and Shiro pulled the unoccupied hand into his own.

“Keith, as your sworn protector and lover, I vow to never let you go without popsicles again.”

Keith grinned, pulling the popsicle out of his mouth. He leaned over and kissed Shiro, their cold lips mixing the red of Keith’s mouth and purple of Shiro’s. The warmth of their noses contrasted the chill as they sucked each other in.

Keith pulled back first. “Thanks.” He returned to his popsicle.

“Any time,” Shiro responded, and did the same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell with me about Sheith on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


	4. Hiking / Swimming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hiking / Swimming

They had lived through so much. They had been stranded alone on planet after planet, had to fight entire armies single-handed, and almost died on a regular basis.

Hiking on a well traversed trail thirty minutes away from friendly civilization should have been easy, but not an hour in his breaths were coming heavier and he felt the sweat trickle down his back. It didn’t help that he insisted on long sleeves in the middle of the summer, but here was was, following Keith up the mountain in a long sleeved shirt, jeans, and hiking boots that had yet to be worn in.

Keith showed no signs of slowing.

“Keith,” he said between breaths, “aren’t you getting hot?”

Keith turned to look at Shiro, his pace not faltering in the slightest. His smile was full of mischief; it always was.

“You getting tired, old man?”

Shiro raised his brows and stopped in his track. “Are we doing this?”

Keith did not pause. “I guess we are!”

With the renewed energy that came from a challenge, Shiro charged, easily throwing Keith over his shoulder in a single movement. Keith squealed.

“Shiro!” he shouted, “what are you doing!”

Shiro’s face scrunched up into an overdramatized sour face. “ _Are you getting tired, old man?_ ”

Keith went limp against Shiro’s backpack with a laugh.

“This was my plan all along,” Keith said into the fabric, “now I have a ride to the lake.”

“Yeah you do,” Shiro responded, not missing a beat.

Keith rolled his eyes. “You’re the actual worst.”

Shiro’s laugh shook them both. “You love me.”

“I know.”

Shiro’s back was sticky with sweat and Keith definitely noticed Shiro’s laboring, but his view down Shiro’s back was too good to complain. Keith knew they were close to the lake, it would be fine.

He hadn’t realized just how close they were until Shiro pulled him off of his shoulder like he weighed nothing and threw him.

Keith only had a moment to yelp before he landed in the water. He was sensible enough to close his mouth the second he realized what was happening, sputtering as he stood up in the shallows, his boots sinking into the mud.

“Shiro!” he shouted.

Shiro was doubled over in laughter.

“What the fuck?!”

Shiro had to sit down on the shore, too consumed with joy to stand. He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to look up at Keith, standing there, pouting, hair plastered to his head like a wet cat. He was overtaken with another fit of laughter and Keith took the opportunity to wade to shore.

“My boots are wet,” he whined.

“I’m sorry,” Shiro responded, “but I needed that to happen at least once in my life, and your phone is safe in my pack. I had to.”

Keith pulled off his brand new boot and turned it upside down, fixing Shiro with a gale as water spilled out.

Shiro was overtaken with laughter once more and fell back against the damp dirt at the edge of the lake.

“Worth it.”

“You’re the worst.”

“You love me.”

“I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell with me about Sheith on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


	5. Relaxation / Recreation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Relaxation / Recreation

It was rare that Keith woke up early enough to watch Shiro sleep. It was late enough that the sun was just starting to peek through the blinds, soft lines of light glowing on Shiro’s face. Back on the ship, Shiro’s snores had been loud enough to sometimes shock Keith awake in the middle of the night. When they got back, one of the first things the government did was give them all physicals. When they found the damage to Shiro’s sinuses, they paid the bill to fix his airways. Keith remembered Shiro opening his yes after surgery, pulling in a lungful of air through his nose, and beaming at Keith.

_I can breathe_ , he’d said. Keith fought the tears as he’d hugged Shiro, but felt Shiro’s own dampen his shirt. _I can breathe_ , he’d repeated, a few more times, laughing. Keith could read into his joy all he wanted, point out how much it must have meant for Shiro to realize that he wasn’t a broken man, to realize that he could heal, to take his first real breath in a decade, but Keith just held him.

Now, Shiro’s breathing was soft against the pillow, his lips just barely parted in the early morning light.

He’d had a nightmare some time in the dark of the night and Keith had been happy to wrap his arms around him, not constricting so much as giving him something to know was real and warm and there for him. The nightmares weren’t violent like they used to be, no screaming awake in the middle of the night, but they were still tiring. Shiro’s body wouldn’t let him wake up absurdly early on mornings after them and Keith was inclined to let him sleep. He slept so little.

Keith slipped out of bed and closed the blinds.

Neither of them were the best cooks, but Keith knew the basics. He set the water to boil, measured out the coffee grounds for the french press, and started heating up the pan.

He opened the fridge, and, like always, was relieved to find it full. He knew it was full, he’d gone grocery shopping with Shiro the day before, but old habits died hard. Shiro still squirreled food away around the house and Keith allowed him that, if it made him feel safe. Staring at their abundance of food made Keith feel safe and he knew Shiro understood.

The bacon loudly sizzled when it hit the pan and Keith quickly covered it with a lid to keep himself from being bacon burned. He cracked some eggs into a bowl and stirred, adding just a bit of milk, salt and pepper. Shiro could add his ungodly hot sauce after. They were comfortable enough to buy cheese pre-shredded. He quickly flipped the bacon and replaced the lid.

He felt arms wrapped around his waist and a head on his shoulder.

“Look how domestic we are,” Shiro mumbled, sleepily, “we’re like a bad romance movie.”

Keith scoffed. “We’re like a great romance movie. Cut up the bell peppers for me?”

Shiro released him. “Got it.”

He sang something as he chopped. Keith couldn’t make out the words but it didn’t matter. It was something happy and light and comfortable. He pulled the bacon off of the pan and put it on a plate.

“You all done?” he asked, and Shiro placed the chopped vegetables in front of him with a kiss on the cheek.

“Anything else?”

Keith cocked his head at the coffee pot. “Coffee.”

Shiro made their coffee, black for Keith and overly sweetened for himself, as Keith cooked. His quiet singing didn’t stop when he sat down at their lovely granite counter, grabbing something from his ever present pile of books to read as he waited.When Keith slid the plate across the counter, Shiro smiled up at him and put the back back down.

“Smells amazing,” he said, and Keith rounded the counter and sat down next to him.

“It is.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell with me about Sheith on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


	6. Free Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How it started...

Keith leaned over in the chair, his elbows resting on his knees, his head resting on his folded hands. It was like a tableau from an old movie as he watched Shiro sleep.

Keith didn’t want to think back to the shape they’d found Shiro in. He hadn’t known what to feel. On one hand, the joy at finding him alive was obvious, but on the other, the fear and worry and anger at what they had done to him, what they had done to him _again_ , was overwhelming. He’d swallowed the emotions down and gotten Shiro into a pod. He could deal with those pesky feelings later, he always could.

He knew that Shiro was going to be okay. He knew what the numbers on the Altean equipment said, he counted Shiro’s breaths and found them steady. When the cryopod had hissed open, Keith had caught Shiro. Coran had reassured him that sometimes, the body just needed a little more rest. It was perfectly normal. He was just sleeping.

Keith was impatient; Keith had always been impatient. He wanted the shake Shiro awake and ask him every question that had plagued him since he had gone missing months ago. He wanted to pull Shiro into his arms and make sure he knew that he could never be replaced, that he could have Black back, that he loved him and that he missed him and that everything would be okay.

A part of him just wanted to kiss him. It was all he could think about, in those months. _I never told him. He never knew._

Keith had been talking about Shiro in the past tense, trying to convince himself that Shiro was actually gone. He had been trying to move on to the next stage of grief, recognizing that if he stayed in denial forever, he’d never get over it. Shiro would be mad if he never moved on.

He moved forward a little bit more and placed his hand along Shiro’s jaw, just like he had in the desert, Shiro’s head turned toward him, just like it had in the desert. This time, his eyes fluttered open.

Keith’s eyes immediately softened when Shiro’s brow furrowed.

“Keith?” he asked, voice scratchy from lack of use.

Keith’s jaw tensed. “I’m right here.”

Shiro searched his face for any hint of a lie, for anything that screamed of a trick. He started trembling under Keith’s gaze.

“It’s _you_.” His voice shook and his eyes widened, filling with tears. Keith nodded.

Shiro took a deep breath, steadying himself, evening out his breathing, and tried to push himself to sitting. Keith immediately jumped in to help, supporting Shiro’s back.

“How long have I been gone?” he asked.

“Too long.”

Shiro looked up and caught Keith’s gaze. Keith’s eyes were the only part of him that were really open, and they screamed at him.

“Keith…” he started, not knowing where to go from there.

Keith took the lead, pulling Shiro into his arms. “Stop leaving me.”

Shiro breathed into Keith’s shoulder and wrapped his arms around Keith’s waist.

“I’m not going anywhere, not anymore.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This week has been an absurd amount of fun, but this is kind of how I imagine their relationship turns from absurdly close friends to something more and leads to all the other fluff you've read. I hope you enjoyed all my self-indulgent fluffy trash :)
> 
> I'm on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


	7. Birthday!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oops. I may have gotten a little bit too attached to this AU... I'm just going to leave this open as I post domestic fluff to my heart's desire. This one was for @itbespacegays' birthday <3

Keith wasn’t a big fan of Shiro’s morning scruff, or his morning breath, or his crest eyes, but this morning, he kissed him awake anyway. A soft and chaste peck on his lips, just enough to get his eyes to flutter open in the early light. Keith leaned on his elbow, hovering above Shiro.

“Happy birthday,” he whispered.

Shiro smiled and stretched, his back arching off the mattress just slightly, moving his toes under the comforter. He settled and turned into Keith’s arm, nuzzling him with a tired, content sigh.

“They say eight’s a big one,” he murmured.

Keith’s laugh was a quiet brush of air, a thrum in his chest more than a sound. He brushed the front of Shiro’s hair back out of his face. “You’d think that by eight you’d finally get a sensible haircut.”

Shiro huffed, mock offended, eyes still closed. “You love my haircut. It took you years to get rid of the hair.”

“I didn’t have the hair, I just didn’t cut it for a year, and then we were in space. I have no idea how you maintained this whatever it is.”

Shiro grinned, leaning into the cheeky little shit he became when he was comfortable. “My hair is magical.”

Keith’s face softened again. He leaned down and pressed another soft kiss to Shiro’s forehead. “Yes it is.”

Shiro just nuzzled in closer.

“What do you want for breakfast?”

“Five more minutes.”

“You can’t eat that, Shiro.”

Shiro shifted onto his back and opened his eyes. “Watch me.”

Keith rolled out of bed and walked around the bed to stand over Shiro, grabbing his hands in his own.

“Babe, I will make you pancakes.”

Shiro’s eyes widened and Keith grinned.

“ _With chocolate chips_.”

Shiro threw the blankets off and Keith started running downstairs, Shiro right on his heels.

Shiro laughed at the top of the stairs, and Keith turned on the landing, caught by the light in Shiro’s eyes.

“This is going to be a great birthday, I can feel it.”


	8. Coffee / Tea

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And this one was for @cycychangart, one of my lovely artists for the Shance Big Bang, whom I love dearly.

Shiro liked coffee. It was a flaw of his that Keith had decided to accept. He hated the coffee breath, but the kisses were sweet enough that most of the time he didn’t care.

Keith liked tea. Shiro loved that Keith liked tea. He loved watching Keith brew his tea, very different from the way his own mother had prepared it, but the basics remained the same. Keith liked to ice his and Shiro’s mother would have never allowed such an insult to the leaf, but it was good, and Shiro liked it. Just didn’t have enough caffeine for him.

Keith liked to say that Shiro was addicted. Shiro would scoff, deny it, but they both knew that it got him through the day. Every morning, Shiro would wake up and boil a big pot of water, one that was big enough for Keith’s pitcher of tea and his french press. Keith would roll out of bed a bit later to the water already boiling. Shiro would drink his coffee and Keith would brew his tea and they’d eat as quickly as possible before heading out to live their lives, but it was a routine. Shiro needed the routine and Keith was happy to share it with him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A commission for ashinan that I thought fit in the setting <3

The sunrise clawed its way up, over the horizon, and low into the sky. It meant so much more now. Shiro closed his eyes and let the light warm his pale skin. He felt lithe fingers along his palm and was unsurprised when they threaded their way between his own.

He’d forgotten how cold the desert got in the morning and sighed, holding the warm hand in his own. He didn’t need to open his eyes, familiar enough with the feeling of this exact hand.

“You’re up early.”

“I woke up and you weren’t there, so of course I had to find you.”

Shiro smiled. “You keep doing that.”

The hand around his squeezed. “Always.”

Shiro remembered standing at this very spot, years ago, and Keith coming up to comfort him before. He couldn’t help but note the similarities and the overwhelming amount of differences. They were so much older now, so much different than they had been. Shiro wasn’t the only one who woke up screaming now. 

Now, they knew how to help each other through it all. They knew how much a warm touch could mean, how they grounded each other, and they weren’t afraid to show it. Loud confessions of love were for people much younger than them, much less experienced.

Now, they just let the sun bring them to life and let their fingers dance across the lines of their palms, sharing a chaste heat in every stroke, eyes closed. They knew the shapes of each other’s nails, the joints that ached, and the calm that a slowly circling thumb brought.

When the land was fully encapsulated in light, Shiro opened his eyes and looked at Keith, still breathing it in. Shiro tugged on their entwined hands and Keith blinked.

“Coffee?”

Keith wrinkled his nose but followed Shiro back into the hut. Shiro laughed.

“Sorry, tea.”

Keith nodded and gave his hand another squeeze.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yell with me about Sheith on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> Yell with me about Sheith on tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


End file.
